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Unitus Seed Fund is a new program that invests in Indian startups that have the potential for large-scale impact on poverty and significantly help those living under $2 a day. It invests in companies which gives significant benefits to the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) population, by providing products and services such as early childhood education, preventive health care, affordable necessities and income-generating opportunities. USF provides a maximum initial investment size of $100,000 and invests in a wide range of business sectors including livelihoods, education, agriculture, healthcare, ecosystem, innovative technologies, mobile, rural distribution etc.

History:

Unitus Seed Fund is part of the Unitus family and was initially incubated by Unitus Labs starting in late 2011. USF announced its first investments in India in February 2012 in three ventures: Milaap Social Ventures, Bodhicrew Services and Hippocampus Learning Centres. In April 2012, USF announced an investment in Villgro Innovation Marketing . In July 2012, USF announced that it was graduating from the Unitus Labs incubation program and forming a new investment management company to scale-up investing. In September 2012, a new investment management company, Unitus Seed Partners LLC (USP) was setup with offices in Seattle and Bangalore to manage USF going forward. U.S. investors include Mike Murray (co-founder of microfinance pioneer Unitus Labs ), Jeff Clark, Vinod Khosla (founder, Khosla Ventures and Khosla Impact), 500 Startups, and Bob Gay (formerly of Huntsman-Gay and Bain Capital).

Criterion for investment:

Unitus Seed Fund invests in companies meeting these criteria:

Potential for serving at least 100,000 low-income families
Strong, experienced management team
Business developed beyond the concept stage
Clearly differentiated value proposition
Strategies to build effective distribution and marketing programs

Investment Portfolio:

Teams who are innovating to bring economic self-empowerment to millions of people living at the base of the economic pyramid:

Bodhicrew Services: Provides skill development for those working in the unorganized sector. Bodhicrew aims to train and deploy 100,000 domestic workers in the next 4 years.

Hippocampus Learning Centre: HLC believes that one of the sure shot ways out of poverty is education. Over the next 3-5 years, HLC hopes to reach out to more than 3,000 villages, employing 12,000 teachers and reaching out more than 300,000 children annually.

View complete portfolio at *http://unitusseedfund.com/portfolio/

Revision as of 18:45, 1 February 2013 edit Eshaninan (talk \| contribs) 57 edits ←Created page with '== Unitus Seed Fund == Unitus Seed Fund is a new program that invests in Indian startups that have the potential for large-scale impact on poverty and significa...'		Revision as of 18:46, 1 February 2013 edit undo Eshaninan (talk \| contribs) 57 edits →Unitus Seed Fund Next edit →
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	== Unitus Seed Fund ==

	Unitus Seed Fund is a new program that invests in Indian startups that have the potential for large-scale impact on poverty and significantly help those living under $2 a day. It invests in companies which gives significant benefits to the [[Bottom of the pyramid\|base of the economic pyramid (BOP)]] population, by providing products and services such as early childhood education, preventive health care, affordable necessities and income-generating opportunities. USF provides a maximum initial investment size of $100,000 and invests in a wide range of business sectors including livelihoods, education, agriculture, healthcare, ecosystem, innovative technologies, mobile, rural distribution etc.		Unitus Seed Fund is a new program that invests in Indian startups that have the potential for large-scale impact on poverty and significantly help those living under $2 a day. It invests in companies which gives significant benefits to the [[Bottom of the pyramid\|base of the economic pyramid (BOP)]] population, by providing products and services such as early childhood education, preventive health care, affordable necessities and income-generating opportunities. USF provides a maximum initial investment size of $100,000 and invests in a wide range of business sectors including livelihoods, education, agriculture, healthcare, ecosystem, innovative technologies, mobile, rural distribution etc.

Revision as of 18:46, 1 February 2013

History:

Criterion for investment:

Investment Portfolio:

Sources: